---
title: "Cloud Agents and Cursor Harness Improvements"
description: "Cursor’s release expands cloud agents and the Cursor harness for longer-running, event-driven software work. Cloud agents can subscribe to pull requests, Slack threads, or scheduled tasks, wake on events, keep goals until completion, and automatically address CI failures and bot comments on pull requests they create. Custom modes pin a selected skill in chat, while /goal supplies a long-lived objective that can be paired with a custom mode or /loop. Subagents can run on separate virtual machines with isolated project copies and clean context, supporting fresh testing or parallel fixes without collisions. Steering improvements let users send follow-ups that wait for the next tool call instead of interrupting an action."
---

# Cloud Agents and Cursor Harness Improvements

[Cursor](https://yomu.fyi/company/cursor) · Aug 19, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

Cursor’s release expands cloud agents and the Cursor harness for longer-running, event-driven software work. Cloud agents can subscribe to pull requests, Slack threads, or scheduled tasks, wake on events, keep goals until completion, and automatically address CI failures and bot comments on pull requests they create. Custom modes pin a selected skill in chat, while /goal supplies a long-lived objective that can be paired with a custom mode or /loop. Subagents can run on separate virtual machines with isolated project copies and clean context, supporting fresh testing or parallel fixes without collisions. Steering improvements let users send follow-ups that wait for the next tool call instead of interrupting an action.

## Context

The release focuses on making cloud agents operate continuously with event-triggered subscriptions, persistent goals, isolated subagent environments, pinned skills, and non-interrupting steering.

## Approach / What changed

The update adds event subscriptions for pull requests, Slack threads, and scheduled tasks; /goal for persistent objectives; Custom Modes for pinned skills; virtual machines for isolated subagents; and follow-up messages that wait for the next tool call.

## Takeaways

- Cloud agents can monitor pull requests, Slack threads, and scheduled tasks, then wake when activity occurs.
- Subagents run in separate virtual machines with isolated project copies and clean context, enabling parallel fixes or fresh-environment testing without collisions.
- Follow-up messages no longer interrupt an agent mid-action; they wait for the next tool call.

## FAQ

### What can cloud-agent subscriptions monitor?

Subscriptions can monitor pull requests, Slack threads, or scheduled tasks. Cloud agents also automatically subscribe to pull requests they create and work toward completion by fixing CI and addressing bot comments.

### How do isolated subagent machines help?

Each subagent receives its own virtual machine, isolated project copy, and clean context. This supports testing a parent agent's changes in a fresh environment or running independent fixes without collisions.

### How do /goal and Custom Mode work together?

The /goal command gives an agent a long-lived objective to pursue until it is complete. A Custom Mode keeps a selected skill pinned in chat, and the two can be paired, with /loop available for recurring check-ins.

**Tags:** [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents), [Automation](https://yomu.fyi/topic/automation), [Cursor](https://yomu.fyi/topic/cursor), [Virtualization](https://yomu.fyi/topic/virtualization)

- Source: [Cursor](https://cursor.com/changelog/08-19-26)
- Source URL: https://cursor.com/changelog/08-19-26
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-19T10:36:29.469Z

[Read original post](https://cursor.com/changelog/08-19-26)